Trip to Ohio by Mike Verrino

Monday afternoon, 3:00, sitting on the computer talking with Jesse, Alex, and Mac.

Four tanks of gas, tons of CDs, a handful of footage, a midnight ice cream run to the GIANT EAGLE, and 1 bullshit ticket later, and we're back home. From where? Ohio, of course.

So back to the computer. Together, we were planning out our trip up to New Hampshire to stay up at Al & Jesse's older brother’s house for 3 days. We were going to ride Rye Airfield. There ended up being a storm warning up there, so we decided to call it off. Next thing we know, I'm mapquesting directions to Chenga World skate park in Cleveland, Ohio. It took several arguments with the parents, a one minute packing session, and a stop at Michael's Pizza, and we were on the road by 4:30.

The drive wasn’t too bad, 8 hours. We only got lost once, but we figured out our way back before we got too out of the way. So back to the road, which was completely empty. When I mean empty, I mean picture driving on the highway with no one in your rearview mirror, or in front of you. Just the few 18 wheelers making their deliveries. Yeah, basically the perfect time for a Pennsylvania police officer to pull us over for driving in the "passing lane". With all those cars out there and all....he still found the need to pull us over...even using his little megaphone or whatever. This was quite humorous because it sounded like a woman, yet when he drove away after writing the ticket, he was the only one in the car. We were convinced the woman cop had cleverly climbed on the roof of our Suburban, and was on a mission to attack us. Later when we filled up for gas, she was nowhere to be found, which meant she had already gained entry into the trunk. That's where all the fart smells were coming from... (THEY WERENT JESSE!!!! HE SWEARS!)

So we arrive in Cleveland at around 1:00AM, and get completely lost in the parking lot of our hotel. Who would have thought the hardest part of this trip would be in the hotel parking lot? Awesome. We check in, and get our awesome complimentary cookies. We were all pretty tired, so we only explored the hotel a little, and then went to bed, watched the most badass movie EVER, and then slept. I am on a mission to find the name of that movie.

 

The next morning, we woke up, and decided to head up to Downtown Cleveland for the day until it was time to go over to Chenga. This city was really nice. It was cold out, and snowing a bit, but that didn’t bother us much at all. We ate some food (this happens more then riding on this trip), saw Lake Erie, took some pictures, and rode in this small public skatepark we found. It was awesome because the park was right on the lake, and in the city, so the view was incredible from every angle. After the snow started falling a little harder, we packed up the car (or truck... MONSTER)… yeah, we packed up the monster and headed to North Ridgeville where we got some lunch at a Wendys which lacked front teeth, and then went over to Guitar World. After that, we headed to Chenga.

Picture of Mike in the skate park found in downtown Cleveland

Brian Cochran riding at Chenga 1

Chenga was an awesome skatepark. It’s seen its days though, and it is getting torn down pretty soon which is sad because it is a really respected place in the BMX community. I met a lot of awesome people, and had a great session. Brian Cochran, his brother and their friend Martti even showed up to ride with us. At a certain time in this night I just stopped and realized how much I loved the life we live composed of biking and friends. We made it back to the hotel room after a stop at Pizza Hut and all laid down because we had been riding for about 5 straight hours, and about 2 hours before that. Yet, the night just couldn’t end there. We needed some ice cream, or something. Oh yeah, and some more complimentary cookies. We had a fun elevator session, and then headed for the front desk, where they turned us down with our plead for some cookies. We did however, find out about a grocery store where we could get some ice cream. Now this wasn’t any grocery store… no. This was the GIANT EAGLE. Let me tell you something, this place could chew up and spit out 3 A&P’s at once. So we get our damn ice cream, and head to the counter, where we strike up a conversation with the cashier, who tells us Chenga 2 is actually right on the other side of the building. THIS WAS THE TRIP OF COINCIDENCES. (DURAN DURAN!!! Hahaha..)

We went over to Chenga 2 even though it was like 11 or 12 at night and closed, but the door was open, so we just decided to stroll on in with our ice cream in hand. Inside we met some dudes building a new section to the park, and we talked for a bit, and headed back to the hotel. This time however, Mac, Al and I got our damn cookies, while Jesse didn’t find out (he wanted them most). Inside the room, we all showed him up by taking out our awesome free cookies. OWNED! It was late after that, and we went to sleep.

 

We woke up a little later on Wednesday, which was nice because we were beat from the night before. Breakfast time had already passed, so we just chilled out a bit until lunch, and then tried to find our way to some mall. We got some food there, and walked around a bit…like cool kids normally do at malls. I had remembered from the night before that some dude at the park had told me about some “famous ice cream place” somewhere around Chenga. Oh course, we were on another mission. Every other gas station meant one of us would ask about this…. “famous ice cream place”. Most said they knew nothing about it. One woman didn’t know about it…but did know that THERES A DAIRY QUEEN RIGHT OVER THEREEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That didn’t satisfy us, so we were true ice cream mission….people… and found the place. Hell yeah, and this ice cream truly was amazing. Okay, NOW we could head over to Chenga 2.

Stopping for food in downtown Cleveland.

Chenga 2 was absolutely amazing, and we were really lucky because barely anyone else was there to ride or skate. We basically had the place to ourselves. I crashed a lot, and loved it. Mac was showing his street style and barspinning and grinding left and right. This session at Chenga had to be the highlight of the entire trip. Everyone was having a blast, progressing a lot, and crashing everywhere. So awesome. Mac rode up this tall contraption thing, expecting and landing ramp to be on the other side, much like the side he rode up. To his surprise…there was a nice drop waiting for him. I’m sure his ribs can tell you how much he appreciated that. It was getting late, I had snapped my chain and killed my knee, and we really needed to get on the road back to New York, so we said our goodbyes to Chenga, and packed up the car for the long drive home. Before that, of course, we needed more food, so we hit up McDonalds.

On the road again. There was nothing too crazy about the drive home. We were all dead tired. The only thing that kept us awake was the conversations we had about how memorable this trip was. We really did have a great time. Enough to already start planning out our next trip. We made it back to Brewster at about 4:30 AM, exactly 60 hours since we had left. I’ll never forget this trip, and cant wait to get back on the road for our next one.

If there is one piece of advice I can give you, it is never to trust a female clown that got punched in the eyes…. She might just be the police officer spying on you. That’s why you need Mapquest Man to save you. The End.